LR Condo developers sue city
Arkansas Business this afternoon broke the news that the developers of Residences at Building 5, a condominium project at the old Arkansas Bar Association building in downtown Little Rock, are suing the city for revoking their building permit.
In a statement released late Friday, Brad Canada, the lead manager of Arkansas Riverview Development LLC, which is building the condos, said he was "blindsided" by the city and has no choice but to the file suit in U.S District Court's Eastern District of Arkansas seeking an injunction and a reinstatement of the permit.
"We have been working toward a resolution with the city of Little Rock and the Doubletree Hotel over the past few weeks, and we were surprised and disappointed to receive the purported revocation of the building permit for the Residences at Building 5," Canada said.
The city revoked the building permit for the project in a letter dated July 12. At issue is city-owned land along Garland Street, which runs behind old Arkansas Bar Association building and the DoubleTree Hotel.
In a letter to CBM Construction, which is building the condos for Canada's development company, City
Director[Manager] Bruce Moore said "there is no document that we can find which authorized CBM to undertake construction on the [city-owned] northern portion, which is the space above Garland Street, on behalf of the City."
Comments
Y'all picked up the mistake in Arkansas Business: Bruce Moore is city manager, not city director.
ARKBLOG: Thanks. We made the correction.
Posted by: Albert Dentay | July 14, 2006 05:56 PM
Was Shannon Light involved in this deal?
Posted by: Pavel | July 14, 2006 06:39 PM
I don't understand this story. What are "air rights"?
Posted by: Beefy T | July 14, 2006 07:38 PM
Air rights is kind of hard to understand. Go here and read this example.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_rights#Roads_and_Air_Rights
Posted by: ARKDEMOCRAT | July 14, 2006 08:47 PM
I smell another lawsuit over this AT&T deal.
Posted by: Kurt C. | July 14, 2006 09:51 PM
I guess the obvious question is how they just figured this out. I mean, when the steel was going up was the city blind to what was going on? It's not like we're talking about a small building tucked away it's in plain view in the middle of downtown.
I obviously don't know the details and perhaps the city is in the right but I think this could've been settled more amicably. When it comes to downtown redevelopment I think the city should be cautious not to do anything that could deter ambitious residential projects down the road. If Canada was looking at more downtown residential development in the future, he's almost definitely not going to bother now.
Posted by: Aporkalypse | July 15, 2006 09:59 AM
How arrogant is this guy Brad Canada? Everytime I read about this building he mentions that he is going to live in the top two floors (8000 sq. ft)
Posted by: rob walker | July 17, 2006 04:34 PM
How arrogant is this guy Brad Canada? Everytime I read about this building he mentions that he is going to live in the top two floors (8000 sq. ft)
Posted by: rob walker | July 17, 2006 04:35 PM